Tagged: sharing economy

We are excited to announce that we are collaborating with NYU’s Arun Sundararajan and Meetup’s Odile Beniflah to create the NY Sharing Economy Meetup so that sharing economy enthusiasts can connect with each other on the platform and allow for other groups and organizations to host and post sharing economy events.

For the kickoff, we had Arun and Meetup’s CEO Scott Heiferman give their thoughts and perspectives on the current state of the sharing economy. Arun gave an academic perspective of the economic and social impact and Scott demonstrated the positive change Meetup has had around the world. In New York alone, there are 10,000 meetup groups with 1 in 8 New Yorkers on Meetup.

In May’s Let’s Collaborate! event, we gathered with sharing economy folks over an authentic Filipino dining experience through Feastly. It was truly a “sharing” experience as we ate delicious and colorful food together with our hands off banana leaves! Thanks to chef Yana Gilbuena for a memorable night. Photos of the event can be found here.

When a supermodel enters the sharing economy, it certainly raises a few eyebrows. We were curious to find out from Lily Cole the purpose behind gift economy platform, Impossible, and what role it would play in the sharing economy. Change agent Susan McPherson moderated an intimate discussion with Lily and her co-founder Kwame Ferreira in the beautiful setting of Neuehouse.

For an event recap, read the article on Shareable Magazine here. Photos from the event can be viewed here.

Inc Magazine covered our panel at Wharton University with Skillshare, Mealku, and ClosetDash. Read the full article here.

The sharing economy is tough not to love if you’re a consumer. It is all about, well, sharing goods and services at a reasonable price.

You can rent a spare room through Airbnb, rent out your car on RelayRides, and even rent some spare closet space at ClosetDash. For all those people thinking this collaborative economy is a trend–or companies suing the likes of Airbnb and Uber–Melissa O’Young, founder of the event series Let’s Collaborate!, says the sharing industry is only getting stronger. O’Young says the industry will pull in $350 billion in transactions this year alone.

Sharing economy enthusiasts gathered together to talk about the growth of collaborative consumption and the subsequent implications with government. Many peer-to-peer platforms face problems with outdated government laws designed for more traditional B2C industries or face no laws at all.

Milicent Johnson from Peers said, “The reality is, we do need regulation” but need to work together with various stakeholders to create laws that both protect citizens and lets innovation thrive. However, the legal landscape for collaborative consumption is currently confusing—”You want to comply with the rules but you don’t know what the rules are.” A recent example highlights this confusion where an Airbnb host got fined $40,000 but the fine was then removed—”Even the government seems confused what the rules are.”

When discussing best practices, Josh Mohrer from Uber advised to take an “Act first, and then ask questions later” approach to get the product in the hands of consumers first and to deal with issues with government when they arise. The alternative—to consult a new concept with the government before it has even launched—could mean years of discussions or even worse, your product will never launch.

In the case where there are no laws such as the absence of mandatory helmet law when biking in NY, there are other ways to encourage citizens to protect themselves. Justin Ginsburg from Citibike mentioned doing helmet giveaways (over 100,000 helmets have been given away in the past few years) and discount coupons for helmets. Regulation is not the only way to encourage helmet-use, and other tactics can be used instead.

Milicent Johnson caused laughter when she stated, “Cities are the OG (original) sharing platform” to illustrate libraries, universities, and schools all promote sharing. There is no doubt sharing economy platforms are creating positive impacts in our cities—we need to educate the government and public on the sharing economy and work together to make laws clearer. Organizations like Bayshare in San Francisco and co:NYC in New York are taking steps to do this.

The rise of the sharing economy has spawned a number of fast-growing organizations and this rapid growth has given savvy individuals an opportunity to build meaningful and rewarding careers in the field. We asked employees from ZipCar, the Collaborative Fund, and Skillshare what it’s really like to work in the sharing economy. Click here to see photos from the event!